a conference
for middle school faculty
sponsored by:
AISNE
October 14, 2011
Dedham Country Day School, Dedham, MA
DESCRIPTION OF SESSIONS
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Technology Workshops
Humanities Workshops
Math & Science Workshops
Global Education Workshops
Assessment Workshops
Brain Workshops
Art Workshops
Breakout Session 1: 10:45am-Noon
Embracing The Power of Our Over-Connected Students
What are THE most important Internet safety skills we should be teaching
Middle School students for their future?
The Amazing Race: A Writing/Research/Technology Project for Middle
School Students
Making Powerful Points: A Blueprint for a Middle School Cross-Curriculum
Research Project
Where Tradition Meets Innovation
Neighborhood Inspirations for Curricula
Resurrecting Robin: Comics Bring Literature Alive!
Middle School Labs, Inc. – Teaching Chemistry Through a Scientific Research
Lab Simulation
Breakout Session 2: 1:00pm-2:15pm
The Hype About Skype: Skype for Educators
Middle School Media Literacy
Visual Vocabularies and Social Justice
Collaborative Inquiry: Google Docs and Noodle Tools Will Transform your
Science Projects!
Teaching Collaboration through Problem Solving in Mathematics
Help Haiti: A Web of Care
Sharing our Creativity and Strategies for 21st Century Learning
Increasing Visual Literacy Through Art
Breakout Session 3: 2:30pm-3:45pm
Get Your Head in the Cloud: Using Google Apps in the Classroom
Social Media Literacy: How Do We Support the Parents in Creating a
Valuable Dialogue on Social Media/Social Networking With Children
Technology: The New Middleman. Bridging gaps between students, teachers
and parents
Flag Flap: Rights, Race, and the Civil War
Middle School Mona Lisas: Project Based Integration of Pre-Algebra Skills,
Concepts, and Artistry
Kids Around the Globe—Empowering Students
Authentic Assessment: Using a Portfolio to Evaluate Student Work
Cognitive Connections: What Middle School Educators Need to Know About
Brains and Learning.
Breakout Session 1: 10:45am-Noon
Embracing The Power of Our Over-Connected Students
Problem: This generation of students is frequently called over-connected due to their overwhelming
exposure to technology and media. As a result, basic academic skills and even social skills are often
considered weak in comparison to kids of previous generations. Students also frequently have difficulty
connecting to their learning and often argue that what they learn in school is not relevant to their lives. In
addition, despite having a strong background in technology, many students are not digitally literate in all
areas that are necessary for school.
Guiding Question: How can teachers embrace social media and other forms of technology to engage
students, teach necessary skills, and make learning relevant? How can we connect to these over-connected
students?
This session will outline the benefits of private social networking sites like Schoology, Ning, and edmodo
to engage students where they communicate best. Learn how to integrate these tools seamlessly into the
classroom and curriculum. Find out about collaboration and communication tools that will allow students
to continue to take part in conversations beyond the four walls of the classroom. Hear about an
interdisciplinary project entitled Technology Boot Camp: Getting Ready for your Future that requires
students to examine and research the questions relevant to their educational and professional future.
PRESENTERS: Peter Smith and Lisa Iaccarino, Worcester Academy (MA)
Peter Smith is currently the Director of Academic Technology at Worcester Academy where he has
worked for the past five years as a technology integrator, history and computer science teacher and an
integral component to the implementation of a one to one laptop program.
Lisa Iaccarino is the Eighth Grade Team Leader and teaches 8th Grade English at Worcester Academy,
where she has worked for four years.
What are THE most important Internet safety skills we should be teaching
Middle School students for their future?
This workshop is for advisors of students, teachers working with health and/or personal safety curriculum,
school administrators, technology staff and interested teachers who want a better understanding of the
threats facing our students online.
Increasingly, Middle School students are spending more and more of their time online using Internet tools,
playing games and socializing. As their time online has increased so, too, have the threats to their personal
safety, computer safety, privacy and personal information. Teens are routinely targeted by scam artists,
unscrupulous marketers, cybercrime organizations, and malware writers. Their behavior and attitudes are
manipulated and influenced daily via multi-million dollar ad campaigns packaged to look like content.
Harassment and bullying are epidemic online and, realizing it or not, our students are building an online
reputation that others are using to evaluate them.
In the context of their online world, what are the essential skills we need to provide to them and what are
the best ways to deliver those skills? This includes:
Skills to reduce their risks of being targeted
Skills to know the best way to respond to harassment or bullying
Skills to recognize scams and malware disguised as games or online tools
Skills to understand the value of their privacy and how to better protect it.
Skills to understand how their attitudes and behaviors are shaped by others
PRESENTER: Doug Fodeman, Brookwood School (MA)
Doug Fodeman has been the Director of Technology at the Brookwood School in Manchester,
Massachusetts for nearly 15 years. He has also been Co-Director of Children Online since 1997, an
organization devoted to the safety of children and teens using the Internet and cell phones. Doug has made
appearances on the ABC Nightly News and the CBS Evening News with regard to cell phone scams
targeting children. Doug has also given hundreds of workshops on a wide variety of related topics such as
Facebook and teens, Internet safety, Using Search Engines Effectively, Protecting Your Privacy Online,
and Telecollaboration. Doug has published many articles on Internet safety and publishes a monthly
newsletter on the topic with his co-director Marje Monroe, at their website, ChildrenOnline.org. He has
taught High School science for more than 18 years, served as Director of Technology at the Pingree School,
and served as a technology consultant to the architectural firm Olson, Lewis, Dioli & Doktor, focusing on
the integration of computer technology into architectural design.
The Amazing Race:
A Writing/Research/Technology Project for Middle School Students
The Amazing Race is a technology-based collaborative project that allows students to learn, practice, and
hone important academic skills. The game is based loosely on the hit CBS television show of the same
name. In this version of The Amazing Race, two students from different fifth grade classes were paired
together to travel virtually through China (the focus of our history curriculum). Using the Internet and a
variety of computer programs, students researched, wrote, and blogged about their journeys from locations
such as the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Terracotta Warrior museum in Xi’an.
The fifth grade language arts curriculum at Shady Hill School aims to improve students’ critical reading
abilities, to build expository and creative writing skills, to develop research strategies, and to strengthen
technology skills. This project reinforces all of these areas of study. In addition, it is an opportunity to
integrate other fifth grade areas of study, such as Mandarin, math, arts, physical education, and science.
There is no limit to how many or which department classes can collaborate on this project. The Amazing
Race project utilizes many different teaching methodologies such as lecture, modeling, inquiry, and
individual and group exploration. In the beginning, heavy teacher support is required. However, as the
project moves forward the role of the teacher lessens considerably.
PRESENTERS: Josh Horwitz and Tracy Eisenberg, Shady Hill School (MA)
Tracy Eisenberg started her career twenty years ago at City and Country school in New York City
teaching medieval history. For the past thirteen years, she has been teaching fifth grade at Shady Hill
School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she currently teaches English and Chinese history.
Josh Horwitz has been teaching fifth grade at the Shady Hill School for eleven years. Previously he taught
seventh and eighth grade at the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA for two years. Recently, he has been
trying to mesh the history curriculum at Shady Hill, ancient China, with technology so as to best prepare
his students to be 21st century learners.
Making Powerful Points: A Blueprint for a Middle School Cross-Curriculum
Research Project
Over the course of seven years, the sixth grade Humanities project at Berwick Academy has evolved to
include a variety of disciplines. The resulting sequence of activities allows all students to find a way to
excel and to demonstrate knowledge about their chosen topics. Perhaps a student struggled to take notes
and to organize information, but he wrote an amazing poetic response to his subject. Perhaps writing the
essay was a struggle for a particular student, but her expertise with technology was clearly evident in her
PowerPoint slides and in her ability to provide technologic support to her peers. In this multi-faceted
project, all students find a place to shine.
This presentation session will offer the outlines for each step in this sixth grade project. The project is
grounded in social studies, but it can be easily adapted to all disciplines and grade levels. The project
involves topic investigation, research skills, thesis question development, outline construction and
expository writing, art, electronic musical composition, creative writing, various types of software, public
speaking, and the development of listening skills. Copies of time lines, benchmark deadlines, rubrics, and
outline formats will be available. The presenters will share many examples of student work. There will be
time for questions and answers and time for sharing information and ideas between all participants.
PRESENTERS: Lisa Wagner and Mary Anker, Berwick Academy, (ME)
Lisa Wagner has enjoyed teaching ancient history and English to sixth graders for 10 years at Berwick
Academy. Collaboration with colleagues is her favorite way to add fresh perspectives and develop new
approaches to her instruction methods. She is also a mentor teacher with the Teaching Institute at Berwick
Academy and the University of New England.
Mary Anker is thrilled to teach English to sixth and seventh graders as well as a course, How to Teach
Social Studies, to the interns in the Teaching Institute at Berwick Academy in collaboration with the
University of New England. She tries to get to know all her students quickly and well, no matter their ages,
and then play to their strengths to help motivate and stretch them. She has been a reporter, a copy writer in
advertising, a free lance writer, a nanny in the USSR, and she is now writing and performing poetry. She is
most proud of the honor of having studied at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts last summer with Naomi
Shihab Nye.
Where Tradition Meets Innovation
Hear about a research project that was developed in the spring of 2011, following a reading of Leaving
Maggie Hope, a novel by Fay School alum, Tony Abbott ‘49. Reading Leaving Maggie Hope has afforded
Fay’s ninth grade students one opportunity among many to explore the fiction novel as a genre. Likewise,
as it is told through the eyes of a Fay School alum, reading this book has given students increased creative
perspectives on the school. While Abbott endeavors to portray an accurate likeness of Fay School,
highlighting traditions and historical memories, he also peppers his writing with creative and fictional
details to protect the anonymity of his peers, the institution, and history.
The task that was put before students, following their completion of the novel, was a mini-project allowing
them a unique insight into their school. Through a combined effort with the alumni and communications
offices, students supplemented the general research on Fay history with alumni interviews, blogs, and a
specific alumni website for this project.
The classroom approach of constructivist, innovative, and intergenerational learning will be explained fully
during the presentation. In this project, students garner and reinforce skills of various research methods,
social-emotional connection/conversation with adults, autonomy in selecting topics, and excellent writing.
Attendees will gain ideas about how to connect their students to the past and present, ideally employing the
services of a school archivist, librarian, alumni director, etc.
PRESENTERS: Deb Smith and Corie Fogg, Fay School (MA)
Deb Smith, Chair of the Fay School English Department, has been teaching middle and high school
English in independent schools for twenty-three years and has been at Fay for twelve years. She earned her
B.A. from Harvard and her M.A. from Middlebury.
Corie Fogg has been teaching middle and high school English for eight years and has been at Fay for three
years. The two of us have been teaching the ninth grade for the past two years. She earned her M.A. from
Boston College and her M.Ed. from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.
Neighborhood Inspirations for Curricula
Following a year-long study of Ancient Greece, Wheeler School’s Eighth Grade History class examines the
Providence, Rhode Island neighborhood of Fox Point in order to develop connections between Athens 400
BCE and Providence 2011. Students are first tasked with blending the lessons of Athenian public space and
modern-day public planning principles. Using this new lens, students develop an understanding of how
immigration patterns, gentrification, renewal projects and major 20 th century events have shaped and
redefined the Fox Point community. Students are then charged with redesigning a local “pocket park” by
first mapping its physical and thematic elements and then recreating the space to address the
neighborhood’s heritage, assets and challenges.
The unit culminates with an in-class presentation that includes a PowerPoint, a 3-D model of the new park,
maps and a challenging Q&A exchange between presenters and their audience. This layered lesson plan
asks students to apply research, writing, technology, and cognitive skills refined throughout their Eighth
Grade experience.
While the study of Greek history encourages a sense of civics, the research and observations of Fox Point
and the redesign of the local park necessitates becoming engaged citizens. Students also perform
community service in other neighborhoods around the city; as they work to improve local communities,
students begin to develop a detailed sense of Providence’s assets and difficulties, which only adds richness
to their conception of the Fox Point Agora. This session explains the Fox Point/Agora Unit, including
strategies on how to use ‘place” in curricula. The overarching goal of this session is to convey the enduring
value of helping students participate in civic life and the corresponding practical benefits found in the
classroom. Attendees will leave with a template for how to incorporate their students’ areas of study and
skills into a multi-faceted group project.
PRESENTERS: Young Un and Joe Baer, The Wheeler School (RI)
Young Un has been the Head of Middle School at the Wheeler School since 1997 and 8th grade history
teacher since 1990. For the last three years, Joe Baer, co-presenter, and Young have designed and
implemented a course that marries topics in Athenian history with local and current issues here in
Providence. Their curriculum combines elements of traditional history instruction with place-based
teaching ideas. In the spirit of blending and connecting, Joe started teaching history three years ago after a
long career in Wheeler’s Extended Programs department. Before that he founded and ran an urban-based
kayaking and canoeing business.
Resurrecting Robin: Comics Bring Literature Alive!
Looking for a new way to invigorate the study of classic literature for today’s connected
middle school students? Create comic strips! Presenters will share a project undertaken
jointly in sixth grade literature and computer classes as students studied Roger Lancelyn
Green’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. To demonstrate their understanding, students
created comic strips using the program Comic Life by Plasq as they crafted their own
Robin Hood adventures. According to story boards, action photos were taken by groups
of costumed class members, and then individualized by each student adding dialogue and
comic touches.
This project piques the creative interests of middle school students and helps them make
connections to the classics. It taps into 21st century skills including brainstorming,
storyboarding, working individually and in groups, writing concisely, acting,
collaborating, creating, and editing. Presenters will provide all resources and steps
for the project, and will demonstrate alternate programs for creating comic strips,
including the iPad app Strip Generator. In this hands-on session, attendees will have the
opportunity to participate in the creation of a comic strip, with the goal that everyone
leaves understanding how to use this technology in the classroom and appreciating its
application to any middle school class.
PRESENTERS: Susannah Remillard and Mary Beth Bergh, Cape Cod Academy (MA)
Susannah Remillard is a 6th grade Language Arts and Literature instructor and Mary
Beth Bergh is a Middle and Upper School Technology Coordinator. Both teach at Cape
Cod Academy in Osterville, MA, an independent K-12 day school with 350 students.
Susannah and Mary Beth collaborate frequently on class projects, and presented a
workshop on podcasting at last fall’s AISNE middle school conference. They share
the belief that technology helps tap into the power of multiple intelligences, and that
today’s educators need to integrate technology in the classroom to help students make
connections to the curriculum and communicate their ideas effectively in our rapidly
evolving 21st century world.
Middle School Labs, Inc. – Teaching Chemistry Through a Scientific Research
Lab Simulation
Come hear about a project that I conduct with my eighth grade physical science students.
In our chemistry experiment design project, students play the role of research scientists who have been
recently hired by “Brookwood Labs, Inc.”. Each “scientist” receives a correspondence from a “potential
client” who has a “real life” problem in need of solving, and who has contracted our research lab in order to
have a controlled experiment designed to determine the relationship between two variables. Each “client”
outlines a “real-life” situation in which they are involved (ex. A forensic examiner in Georgia wants to see
if decreasing particle size of reactants does dramatically speed up a reaction, thus lending credence to his
suspicion that an explosion in a sugar factory was caused by sugar dust) in the hopes that the experiment
that our “scientist” designs can provide some empirical evidence to help him or her solve the problem.
Students then design and carry out their controlled experiment, experimental results are graphed using an
Excel XY Scatterplot graph, and the findings of the student, in addition to the scientific principles behind
the experimental results, are presented to their classmates for “peer review”.
Attendees of this session will become familiar with an alternative method of teaching chemistry topics to
8th grade physical science students that encourages a high level of student engagement and understanding.
Through this project, students learn chemistry concepts such as pH, reaction rates, exothermic reactions,
solutions, catalysts, and synthesis/decomposition/replacement reactions, students in addition to gaining an
in-depth understanding of scientific inquiry, experimental design, and data collection, analysis, and
presentation. This session would be appropriate for teachers of 7th and 8th grade science, and multiple
examples of how to tailor this project to a specific school or class will be presented.
PRESENTER: Rich Lehrer, Brookwood School (MA)
Rich Lehrer is the 8th grade science teacher at Brookwood School in Manchester, Massachusetts. He has
taught at Brookwood for 4 years as well as international schools in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Caracas,
Venezuela. Prior to this, he also taught on the west coast of his home country of Canada.
Breakout Session 2: 1:00pm-2:15pm
The Hype About Skype: Skype for Educators
Skype has enabled teachers to bring the global classroom into their own classroom. Science students
studying weather can talk to other students living in Tornado Alley, or students studying French or Spanish
can enter the classrooms of students in France or Spain. All that is needed is a laptop, an LCD projector, a
screen, a webcam, and a Skype account.
Attendees will learn about how the Newton Country Day School sixth grade had a
Skype book club with the 7th year students of the Sacred Heart High School in London,
England, and about all the ups and downs of this project from a first-time Skyper. Attendees will also learn
how to set up a free Educators Skype account, search for lessons, make contacts with teachers around the
world, and witness a Skype connection in action.
PRESENTER: Rebecca Kinney, Newton Country Day School (MA)
Rebecca Kinney has been the Middle School Librarian at the Newton Country Day School for twelve
years and went to England last summer on a travel grant to visit another Sacred Heart school.
Middle School Media Literacy
We all know that kids are spending more time in front of one type of a screen or another than ever before.
In fact, kids spend about 40 hours a week gaming, watching YouTube, Facebooking, watching TV, texting,
surfing online, IMing, and interacting with other online media – in addition to meeting their academic
requirements and extra-curricular activities. We all live in a media-saturated environment where potential
consumers are targeted 24 hours a day. Kids are no exception. However, because their brains are still
developing, they are more vulnerable to marketing and persuasive techniques. Kids need information to
help them understand how media affects them and how they can make decisions that are right for them –
not always right for a company or corporation’s bottom line. Media literacy offers students the opportunity
to learn skills to critically consume and create media all within their cultural framework.
In this session, we will discuss the current climate of childhood from consumer-based culture to gender
stereotyping – tough versus sexualization. Media examples will be used to illustrate concepts. Attendees
will learn and practice deconstruction skills, the foundation for critical analysis of media. This will include
learning how to identify the languages of persuasion used in advertising as well as identifying the subtext
and untold stories. Teachers will apply these skills to current advertisements and practice with each other.
By the end of the session, teachers will have received an overview of a media literacy curriculum for
middle school students. They will also be made aware of resources available to start their own media
literacy programs to help kids navigate their media world.
During the Media Literacy Session Teachers Will:
 Learn and practice basic deconstruction skills that can be applied to any media.
 Discuss how kids are vulnerable to advertising techniques because their brains are still developing.
 Analyze cultural messages from violence to sexualization.
 See examples of student work.
 Have an introduction to media literacy curriculum.
 Learn about resources available to support the development of a media literacy curriculum.
PRESENTER: Alexis Ladd, The Rivers School (MA)
Alexis Ladd, MPH, has been teaching Media Literacy for five years at the Rivers School in Weston, MA.
She is currently teaching Media Literacy for Youth and Children at Wheelock College in Boston, MA.
Alexis worked in healthcare communications for twenty years before becoming an educator and applies
this experience to sharing her understanding of how marketing is used to develop consumers from cradle to
grave.
Visual Vocabularies and Social Justice
This workshop will describe an approach of having students create "visual vocabulary" resources—
incorporating inquiry, writing, research, and design-- as touch points for essential questions of a unit. One
use of visual vocabularies will be shown in which students prime their understanding for a global studies
project centered around the Material World photos of people and their possessions. Workshop attendees
will then learn about the approach by participating in the process of creating visual vocabulary resources
for a project that explores the question of why and how people choose to either take a stand for justice or to
stand by. This project, the primary case study of the workshop, uses current events and the novel Roll of
Thunder, Hear My Cry as its key texts, but the approach can be used to create projects across many
disciplines. After exploring how visual vocabularies are created and used, the workshop will look at a
culminating project in which students become investigators of social justice, looking for examples of how
the visual vocabulary concepts relate to their own lives and communities.
Participants will learn how to guide students in creating visual vocabulary resources to underpin units in
any discipline. They will also be shown how technology such as GoogleSites, GoogleDocs, and MSWord
can enhance this process. Attendees will also get details about a specific project in which students
investigate social justice in action in their own lives.
PRESENTER: Dana Tatlock, The Wheeler School (RI)
Dana Tatlock teaches 6th grade Humanities and Math at The Wheeler School in Providence where she has
worked for 14 years in both the middle and upper divisions. She has previously taught History in Botswana
and in England. This summer she will be working with teachers in Bangladesh as part of the Teaching
Excellence and Achievement Program.
Collaborative Inquiry: Google Docs and Noodle Tools Will Transform your
Science Projects!
Google Docs is an excellent tool to foster collaboration between students while allowing teachers to
provide on-going feedback from any computer with Internet access. It becomes even more powerful in
conjunction with Noodle Tools, a citation management and note-taking program--that is also accessible
from anywhere. This session will introduce these software applications by highlighting a four-and-a-half
month science project that is required of all 7th graders at Thayer Academy. The group inquiry projects
include brainstorming, background research, experiment design, data collection, experimentation and
student presentations. These applications and techniques are also excellent for English assignments, history
papers or any project where two or more people are collaborating. Librarians and Academic Technology
Specialists interested in helping teachers will also be interested in this session.
PRESENTERS: John Hamilton and Amy Sprung, Thayer Academy (MA)
John Hamilton is a middle school teacher, coach and advisor at Thayer Academy. Before coming to
Thayer, he was a math and science teacher in Richmond, California. His quarter century of classroom
experience has led him to the realization that he has a long way to go and not much time to get there!
Amy Sprung has worked at Thayer Academy for the past three years where she serves as the Middle
School Librarian and Academic Technology Coordinator. Her previous experience working for the Harvard
College Library while earning her Masters in Library and Information Science from Simmons has nearly
prepared her for the challenges of Thayer Middle School, where she learns more every day.
Teaching Collaboration through Problem Solving in Mathematics
Middle School teachers all want our students to become “good problem solvers.” In math, a discipline
where there are plenty of problems to solve, it’s easy to focus on the math content and let students fend for
themselves when it comes to working together. Middle school math presents a prime opportunity to teach
collaboration overtly alongside important mathematical content. A Problem Based Learning (PBL)
approach can be successfully used to meet both objectives. In a PBL classroom, students sometimes work
towards a common class solution; at other times, students work in small groups employing alternative
approaches to the same problem. Girls and boys of all ability levels gain confidence by presenting
alternative methods and solutions. Along the way, the teacher can actively guide students in listening to and
understanding their classmates’ reasoning, challenging others respectfully, and articulating their own
thinking. Teaching students to collaborate, not just compete, in math can help develop true problem solving
habits of mind.
In this session, participants will learn:
•How to identify appropriate problems for extended problem solving.
•How to prepare a problem solving lesson.
•How to group students for problem solving.
•How to facilitate student problem solving.
•How to differentiate using PBL.
•Techniques for structuring/scaffolding class problem solving experiences.
PRESENTER: Janet Cowan, Applewild School (MA)
Janet Cowan teaches math in grades 7 through 9 and is the Math Chair at Applewild School, a K-9
independent school in Fitchburg, MA. She holds a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from
Babson College. She has completed additional course work at Drexel University, has participated in the
Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics, Science, and Technology, and has been the recipient of an
Innovative Teaching grant from Applewild to support Problem Based Learning among Applewild faculty.
Help Haiti: A Web of Care
The session will consist of a presentation of the “Help Haiti” activity as a case-study through which to
explore the possibilities of service learning based on student initiative that leads to collaboration throughout
the School community.
Waynflete’s Middle School student-led “Help Haiti” service group uses a multi-disciplined curriculum and
seeks to connect the entire school community to the work of bringing short and long-term aid to, and
awareness of, the poverty that plagues the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Our presentation will
show how the students initiated and pursued varied objectives and will outline the elements of the project
that we feel can be replicated in other schools.
The group was formed by students in response to the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. The founding
members were clear that they wanted the group to provide sustained support rather than respond solely to
the disaster of the moment. The group, with some change of membership, has been active for three
semesters. The average membership is 25 students per semester. Students have raised a total of $5,500.
The group began with fundraising for humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the earthquake. Over time, their
focus expanded to include education of our community about the culture and resiliency of the Haitian
people. Students collaborated with the members of the Haitian community in Portland (through the family
of a student). The third semester students have formed relationships with NGOs in Haiti who are committed
to building the Haitian economy (textiles and coffee).
Students combined a number of their diverse social action concerns. They wanted to make sure their funds
were well used, so they researched organizations with ties to Maine where they felt there would be
accountability. In making tee shirts to sell, they selected organic, fair trade cotton and a wind-powered
manufacturer. They debated the relative merits of maximizing return on the items sold for fundraising
versus the use of socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing. They explored for themselves
the complex interconnection of economic production and pressures on social welfare.
Student discussions the first session were on the relative urgency of medical aid or aid to orphans and lost
children. One memorable exchange: “If they are dead, the children don’t need school.” “Yes, but if they are
alone on the street, that is like being dead.” As the situation developed in Haiti, so did the focus of the
students, from aid, to supporting Haitian economic self-sufficiency. According to one student
spokesperson, “The Help Haiti group is about making sure people are still aware of what is happening in
Haiti. Just because it is not all over the news or in the heat of the moment does not mean that the Haitians
are in livable conditions. It is going to take many years and many people to change the mark that the
earthquake made on the land and on the people.”
PRESENTERS: Kelly Connors, Marion Knox, and Jim Millard, Waynflete School (ME)
Kelly Connors teaches Latin, serves as a Middle School advisor, and is the Chair of the Foreign Language
department at Waynflete School. She has worked with Middle School students at Waynflete since 2002,
both in and out of the classroom. As an advocate for student initiated programs, she has led the School’s
Roots and Shoots program and participated in Help Haiti.
Marion Knox has been working with Middle School students at Waynflete School since 1999. She holds
an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. While living in India in the 90's, Marion was a
manager for the Netraprakash eye camps that served residents of Tansa Valley, outside Mumbai. This
summer she attended an immersion program in Haitian Creole at the Rassias Center for World Languages
and Culture at Dartmouth College.
Jim Millard has been teaching English at Waynflete School since 1991. He attended the University of
New Hampshire and earned a BA in English in 1985. He received a Master of Science in Education from
the University of Southern Maine in 1994. Social justice education programs are an emerging interest of
his, and Jim spent 10 days in Haiti in the summer of 2010. His time there profoundly focused his vision on
the lack of economic justice in the relationship between the U.S. and Haiti.
Sharing our Creativity and Strategies for 21st Century Learning
Middle School teachers have long known that tapping into the cognitive learning domains of knowledge,
comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation are keys to excellence in teaching. How has
our approach to these learning domains changed when we integrate the 21st century skills of critical
thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity in our classrooms? Through our new and fresh
projects, how are we best modeling these 21st century skills?
The presenter will deconstruct each cognitive category and link specific 21st century skills to this 20th
century theory. Next, we will outline ten middle school projects (in a variety of disciplines and linked to
information evaluation, media and technology) that reflect the new connections between old theories of
learning and our new 21st century world. This presentation will include a brief refresher lecture on
cognitive domain research and its relationship to specific 21st century skills. The primary focus will be on
showcasing middle school projects that embody this research/skills and engaging in a highly interactive
discussion on what works in middle school classrooms. Attendees will be inspired to design, assess, and
then share 21st century middle school projects connected to our learning theories, and model what we ask
of our students.
PRESENTER: Dr. Mary Frances Bisselle, Maple Street School (VT)
Dr. Mary Frances Bisselle (Head of School) B.A. Boston College, M.A.L.S. Wesleyan
University, E.d.D. Fran joined Maple Street School after completing a four-year doctoral
fellowship and teaching graduate and undergraduate students in the Education department
at the University of Vermont. She began her career in education at the Taft School in
Watertown, Connecticut where she was a dean, teacher, coach and dorm parent for nine
years.
Increasing Visual Literacy Through Art
Several years ago the presenters attempted to incorporate political cartoons into their eighth grade
American History curriculum. However, they encountered a problem: their students lacked the cultural
literacy and visual analysis skills to recognize important historical figures, places, and works of art, and
thus were unable to interpret the cartoons we presented to them. In response, they altered the curriculum to
incorporate a variety of images and to place greater emphasis on the skills of visual analysis. These lessons
include artwork, photographs, graphs, maps, and political cartoons in order to achieve three distinct goals.
The first is to educate the students to become more culturally literate by familiarizing them with diverse
images of historical significance, such as George Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb
Leutze, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and photographs of current and historical leaders of American
government. The second is to provide them with the tools to look critically at a work of art or political
cartoon and recognize the objective or bias of the artist. The third is to teach them to present their own
ideas visually, in the form of a political cartoon or map. This curriculum culminated in a field trip to the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in which students were asked to discuss works of art they had previously
encountered in class, employ historical knowledge to connect works to particular periods and events from
the course, and use their analytical skills to interpret works for which they had no background.
Attendees will learn:
 How to incorporate artwork and other visuals into the History curriculum, as a distinct discipline
from Art History
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Ways to create connections between historical information and visual representations
How to make use of online resources such as the MFA’s Educators Online, which allows teachers
to create their own collection of objects and have students post assignments to the gallery
 How to implement a project in which students were asked to create their own historical atlas, thus
organizing information visually and connecting historical events to geographic features
The presenters will share model lesson plans involving significant works of art and political cartoons.
They will cover strategies for planning an effective field trip to the American Art collection at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston or to any art museum.
PRESENTERS: Kathleen Scorza and David Byron, Newton Country Day School (MA)
Ms. Kathleen Scorza graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in history and has worked for the past
four years at Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Newton, MA. She teaches an eighth
grade American History and Civics class and a seventh grade history class on the Western Hemisphere,
with special emphasis on the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Mr. David Byron graduated from Harvard College with an A.B. in history and has worked for the past five
years at Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Newton, MA. He teaches an eighth-grade
American History and Civics class and a tenth-grade World History II class (1400-present).
Breakout Session 3: 2:30pm-3:45pm
Get Your Head in the Cloud:
Using Google Apps in the Classroom
Cloud based technology (applications and storage run completely from the Internet) is swiftly changing the
landscape of learning. Suddenly, a student’s classroom experience doesn’t need to end when the period
ends. It doesn’t need to live in a textbook or on a static web page. A dynamic, collaborative, and highly
personal experience can be delivered online, and it doesn’t require a tech degree.
This session will introduce attendees to Google Apps for Education and demonstrate its classroom potential
by sharing the recent experiences of teachers and middle school students at The Sage School (Foxboro,
MA), who began using it in the 2010-2011 academic year.
Participants will learn how Google Apps can be used across several disciplines, including humanities,
math, science, and the arts. Techniques in online student and assignment management will be shared, as
well as the basic steps involved in launching and securing Google Apps within a classroom, division, or
school.
Participants who come with laptops and/or mobile devices will be able to explore the tools in an “online
sandbox”. Those without devices, will be able to follow along as the presenters demonstrate uses for
Google Apps via a projected desktop.
PRESENTERS: Anne Cadigan and Jorge Vega, The Sage School (MA)
Anne Cadigan: Anne is a teacher of middle school humanities at The Sage School. Her philosophy for the
integration of technology is that technology must always improve human connections and interactions. She
is the chairperson of the Sage School Technology Committee.
Jorge Vega: Jorge is the Director of Technology at The Sage School. He has taught at and worked in the
technology departments of New York and Massachusetts independent schools for the last 15 years. He is
currently researching the intersection between cloud based technology and mobile devices, and how it
might enhance K-8 learning.
Social Media Literacy: How Do We Support the Parents in Creating a
Valuable Dialogue on Social Media/Social Networking With Children
Middle School faculty are increasingly engaged in discussions with parents around the
issue of technology, especially with social media/social networking. Most parents are
looking for help navigating this new mode of communication, trying to find ways to have
open conversations with their adolescent children and to protect them at the same time.
Some are simply asking for what is most appropriate for their child. As educators, we
agree that this is not an easy task and that there are no easy or proscribed solutions. We
do not claim an expertise in the field, merely a genuine interest in helping our school
communities cope with this difficult task.
Interested educators are invited to join facilitators from Dedham Country Day School to participate in an
active discussion and sharing of ideas. Attendees will learn about the myriad of issues relating to
technology and social media/networking that have pervaded our school communities. A round table
discussion will enable participants to share their successes and concerns related to these issues.
FACILITATORS: Nate Buffum, Rob Thacher, and Ali Fernandes, Dedham Country Day School (MA)
Nate Buffum spent sixteen years as a middle school history teacher and is the current Acting Head of the
Middle School.
Rob Thacher has spent six years as a middle school history and English teacher.
Ali Fernandes has spent three years as Network Administrator and Technology Support.
Technology: The New Middleman
Bridging gaps between students, teachers and parents
What are the benefits of an online grade book? Should comments about student
work accompany end of term grades or be directly linked with assessments? How do parents want to
receive information from teachers? Attached to the 21st century student is the 21st century parent, and both
are in some ways attached to a wireless device of sorts. Attendees will provide their opinions regarding
evolved grading procedures through a google form. The poll will likely guide the conversation and
hopefully create a twitterfeed as we discuss different points. Ultimately, I want to emphasize how instant
feedback should lead to an improved conversation, albeit a virtual email conversation, referencing the
enhanced conversation the discussion group will be having as we go.
The second part of the presentation will open with a video of an assignment presented to students without
any oral instruction: I showed them how I wanted them to make a playbill for a production of “Julius
Caesar.” I will also present an assignment presentation in google docs. In both cases, I would present the
elevated student work that was a result of my reaching them using a different medium/media. They raised
the bar when I raised the bar. Again, the common thread was our using email as a venue for continued
conversation to help students understand expectations or ask pertinent questions about the task they were
completing i.e.- how do I embed a video, put a quicktime video on imovie, make a video of an interview?
The new middleman is technology. Encouraging email conversations, open grade books, and instant
feedback supports a circular discussion involving all parties. The discussion is improved because it
removes lag time and allows people to speak more candidly. It’s also efficient and free.
PRESENTER: John Farnsworth, The Fessenden School (MA)
For the past 6 years John Farnsworth has actively worked both in and outside of the classroom at The
Fessenden School as a fifth grade English teacher. Previous experiences include teaching in a rural
independent school and an urban charter, both at the high school level. He is a supporter of good ideas and
sincerely believes in collecting as many as possible, at all times, in every aspect of his life. John believes
that teacher leadership is the perspective that best represents his hopes for the future of education. The
more involved teachers are in the entire schooling process, the better off the school.
Flag Flap: Rights, Race, and the Civil War
A fascinating Federal Court case ended up providing the basis for the most
engaging project of the year for Brookwood School seventh graders. The case is a recent one in which a
Tennessee student, believing his First Amendment rights had been violated, sued when his school
prohibited him from wearing a belt buckle adorned with the image of the Confederate flag. The speaker’s
class imagined that the case is heard by the Supreme Court (which it might be), with students playing the
roles of attorneys for each side as well as Court Justices. This two-week project served as the glue for the
entire year’s course. It solidified a profound connection between our autumn studies of American
government and the Bill of Rights and our winter studies of the Civil War. In essence, the case requires that
students consider what the Confederate flag stands for, and, consequently, it served as an incomparable
avenue into discussing why the Civil War was fought. Furthermore, it provided a touchstone we came back
to over and over during our spring studies of the Civil Rights Movement, an effective foil to students’
steadfast belief that the issues leading to the Civil Rights Movement are far behind us. If race no longer
matters, one might ask, why was Tom Defoe suspended for wearing the Confederate flag to school?
Attendees will leave armed with detailed assignment sheets and lists of resources to
guide students through the project. These assignment sheets essentially lay out the bread
crumbs—links to articles about other First Amendment cases, contacts at organizations
as diverse as the ACLU and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, etc.—that lead students
through the logic of the case; with these documents, attendees could implement this
project—or adapt it—very easily.
The speaker’s hope is to find a partner school in the South next year with whom to
collaborate on this project, since it is fundamentally, after all, an exercise in appreciating
other perspectives.
PRESENTER: Kent Lenci, Brookwood School (MA)
Kent Lenci has taught middle school Spanish, humanities, and history and served in a number of
administrative posts. He currently teaches seventh grade history and serves as the Director of Upper School
Student and Faculty Development at Brookwood School in Manchester, MA.
Middle School Mona Lisas: Project Based Integration of Pre-Algebra Skills,
Concepts, and Artistry
This hands on session guides teachers through the elements of an engaging Pre-Algebra Project which
consistently connects with a wide spectrum of 7th grade learners through its flexibility and through the lure
of its final product – an extremely accurate poster sized image of the individual students’ choosing
Multiple pre-algebra skills, work habits, and technological skills are introduced, practiced and reinforced
through the process. Primary goals, skills and concepts include:
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Building connections between area, scale factors, and similar figures.
Developing a graphic understanding of simple functions.
Developing systems for accurate recording of data.
Recording and plotting data in an (x,y) coordinate plane.
Practicing and reinforcing integer operations skills.
Reinforcing of the importance of accuracy through a tangible product.
Writing algebraic equations to solve for a scale factor.
Exploring algebraic functions rules which produce graphic reflections, expansions or
slides.
Using technology when organizing data, implementing formulas, making charts, and
checking for errors.
For the student who tends to be careless with the details of calculations, this project provides repeated and
consistent feedback that accuracy matters. For the artistically challenged, this project is often the most
successful piece of art they have ever created. For students who tend to over-invest themselves, the project
introduces the idea of diminishing marginal returns to time invested, and allows them to make an
affirmative decision about what constitutes sufficient data.
Attendees will walk away from the session with strategies, tools, and structure to implement a similar
project for 6th 7th or 8th grade students, as well as suggestions for how to tailor the requirements to match
individual student needs or cooperative learning goals.
PRESENTER: Matt Herreid, Moses Brown School, (RI)
Matt Herreid has taught and coached Math, Spanish, and multiple sports for 20 years in the 6,7, and 8 th
grades at Moses Brown School in Providence RI.
Kids Around the Globe—Empowering Students
Kids Around the Globe is an elective focusing on other cultures and experiences. The students learn to
appreciate diversity and to celebrate multiculturalism. Class activities have involved literature and art
projects, as well as group discussion on a variety of historical, cross-cultural, and personal themes. The
class also focuses on acceptance of others and learning about economic difficulties facing many children
around the world. Specific class projects have included exploration of languages from other countries
including Spanish, ASL, and Swahili. The students have read stories of children past and present including
The Breadwinner and I Am A Taxi by Debra Ellis and Sold by Patricia McCormick and have discussed the
children’s roles and family structures in other countries. Students have also learned about ways to save the
environment.
This workshop will focus on making global connections through the empowerment of students. Attendees
will learn about the origins, philosophy and the curriculum of Kids Around the Globe. They will be given a
list of the materials used and learn about the overall structure of the class. They will also see the valueadded benefits of empowerment for the students as a panel of participants presents information about the
projects completed, fundraisers that have raised thousands of dollars, and ways that KAG classes have
energized social action and coordinated with community service initiatives across the entire school.
PRESENTER: Freddi Lynne Pare, Landmark School (MA)
Freddi Lynne Pare has been a teacher at Landmark School for the past 15 years. She has taught
Individual Language Tutorials, Language Arts, Oral Expression and Study Skills. She has coached middle
school Cross Country and Track and Field and elementary Cheerleading. The Kids Around the Globe class
has been developing over the past three years. It started as a small class of six middle school girls (Girls
Around the Globe) and has grown into eight classes with a total of 36 students this school year including
boys and girls in grades 2-8.
Authentic Assessment: Using a Portfolio to Evaluate Student Work
This session will focus on the value of utilizing the portfolio system as the most developmentally
appropriate form of assessment for the middle school stage of learning and growth. Attendees will walk
away with a plan for how to create a portfolio for their own class. This session is applicable to all middle
school grade levels and disciplines. Participants are asked to bring an overview of one or more units from
their course, for which they would like to create a student portfolio.
The speaker will:
 Share personal experiences having used a portfolio to assess student work in middle school
courses.
 Discuss what constitutes authentic assessment across disciplines and how it can be most
informative for teachers, students, parents, and the wider community.
 Address “backward planning” in curriculum and how to design and choose assessments that can
demonstrate a student’s given end goal in a unit or course.
 Address the implementation of benchmarks and self-reflection to assess student work.
 Exhibit samples of working portfolios.
Attendees will learn:
 How to plan backwards (creating a student and teacher designed end goal for an assignment, unit,
or course and building a portfolio which reflects progress toward that goal).
 What constitutes authentic assessment.
 How to include families in the portfolio process.
 What a working middle school portfolio can and should look like.
 How to design and choose benchmarks for a portfolio.
PRESENTER: Liz Gray, Milton Academy (MA)
Liz Gray is in her third year teaching 6th grade social studies and co-directing the CAFÉ (Cultural
Awareness for Everyone) Middle School Diversity Group, of which she was a co-founder, at Milton
Academy in Milton, MA. Prior to that, she taught 7 th and 8th grade social studies and Latin for four years at
Uphams Corner Charter School in Boston. She completed both her BA in Classics and MAT in History
and Social Studies at Brown University. She has used a portfolio in all of her classes since beginning her
teaching career.
Cognitive Connections: What Middle School Educators Need to Know About
Brains and Learning.
Our goal during the session is to bridge communication between educators and neuroscientists, with a focus
on the adolescent brain. How can we make connections from research about basic anatomy and
functionality of the brain to our classroom practices? In honing in on cognitive functions especially salient
to education, such as attention and executive function, we will address “neuromyths” and common
misconceptions. More importantly, we will discuss the potential applications and limitations of this
research. Discussion related to curricular strategies will follow.
With support from current research, attendees will leave this session with a new-found awareness of how
the brain works and several applications for education.
PRESENTERS: Allison Posey, Walnut Hill School (MA) and Kitty Stirling, The Fessenden School (MA)
Allison and Kitty are both independent school science teachers who met while studying Mind Brain
Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Allison Posey teaches science at Walnut Hill Arts School, including courses in cognitive psychology,
genetics, and biology. She has spent over ten years as an instructor for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented
Youth, and focused her study on 'gifted' learning while at Harvard Graduate School for Education. She is
interested in curricular design, especially as it applies to Universal Design for Learning. She is also a
member of the International Mind Brain Education Society.
Kitty Stirling is currently is an Upper School science teacher at the Fessenden School in West Newton,
MA, where she teaches biology and physical science. She has a degree in Biology from Duke University
and a Ed. M from Harvard University. Kitty is especially interested in how learning about the brain can
impact student and teacher performance. Her first biology unit in the fall includes The Nature of the
Scientist: an Exploration of Brain and Cognitive Basics. Aside from her work teaching and coaching at
Fessenden, she has also taught middle school science and math at several area independent schools. She is
currently a member of the NSTA and International Mind Brain Education Society.